Stories are popping up all over about this Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG 6×6 model, a limited-production monstrosity that’s designed to be sold only to one kind of clientele. Of course, we were not invited to the launch in Dubai because Mercedes-Benz didn’t deem us worthy enough to show our brown faces at the event.
Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority plans to crack down harder on illegal transport services, which has seen an increase in the past few years, with violators facing confiscation of vehicles and repeat offenders likely to face jail time, followed by deportation.
Opel has officially announced their return to the UAE this week via dealer Liberty Automobiles in Dubai, after quietly displaying their cars at the 2012 Sharjah Auto Show late last year and being on sale for several months already. In an interesting move, almost their entire range is available here, with a couple of notable exceptions.
The Nissan Pathfinder has never had a consistent heritage. The first one arrived in 1986 as a 3-door compact 4×4 on a body-on-frame pickup chassis. The 5-door version only arrived in 1990, still a compact. The second-generation model in 1996 moved up to the midsize category with a unibody frame as well as independent suspension, and people complained that it lost its heritage. In 2006, the third-generation moved back to a body-on-frame construction, retained its independent suspension and grew in size to accommodate a cramped 3rd-row seat, and people complained again that it lost its heritage. Now the 2013 model has gone back to a unibody,
The Toyota Avalon never really did well in the UAE. Conservative design, woolly handling and a price-tag that slowly crept up to Lexus-like levels, it was never destined to do well here. I never though much of it either, until I sat in the back seat of a 2008 model when hanging with my chauffeur buddy. With its cushy voluminous interior, it suddenly dawned on me that it’s a darn good comfort cruiser, and would’ve done well were it not for its sky-high price tag. But now there’s an all-new model for 2013, and apparently it’s going after “younger”
Bridgestone Middle East and Africa officially opened Bridgestone Park, their new 21,678 metre-square facility in Jebel Ali Free Zone, recently.
Two new Salik toll gates will be installed in Dubai soon this year, according to the RTA. They’re set to go live by April 15.
The Porsche World Roadshow is an event held around the world almost every year by the German carmaker’s dealers, to showcase their latest models to potential customers in the comfort of, well, a racetrack. We’ve attended the UAE event in years past, but for whatever reason, we did not get an invite from Porsche this year. But then an invitation came in from the most unlikely of places — Emirates NBD Bank!
DM Cube, a UAE-based event management company, has announced that they’re launching “THE AGELESS Mythical Cars Tour UAE 2013”, a regularity race scheduled to take place across the UAE from December 9 to 13, 2013.
Ford Middle East, in partnership with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Road & Transport Authority, is conducting the Ford Driving Skills for Life programme in the UAE. It is the first time that it is being held in the GCC.